Tuesday 16 January 2007

Unimpressive Upgrades

Now, maybe I did this incorrectly, but how was I to know? I plugged in my Creative Zen Micro, a neat little MP3 player with which I have been very happy so far. Windows Media Player 11 suddenly tells me that the player I've attached is using an outdated driver that is no longer supported. So, what the hell? I go to the Creative website, download a new driver, install (including a disconnect-reconnect sequence), reboot and kick off Media Player again.

Sync tab ... "Please connect a device". Oh, maybe it switched off. Nope. Still plugged in, still on. Refresh Devices? Done. Please connect a device.

Okay, so maybe this snazzy new driver doesn't like the stone-age firmware version I've still got on the Zen. No prob, they have downloads for that too. Creative.com loads again, firmware update download, install. Oh, wait, your device isn't connected. Connect a device and try again. I peek at the Zen screen, sitting on the desk, glowing blue like a smug neon stone, doing squat. Everything is plugged in, but now Windows won't work with my Zen. Next option is a cold boot. Stay tuned.

Nope. Nothing doing. Now switching on the Zen while connected results in the strangest sound I have ever heard Windows make: "doon doon doon" very quickly. Like the sound you get when you connect working hardware, but with a clear "your hardware is broken" vibe to it. So what to do? Revert and try the firmware upgrade first? Nah. By this time, I think I'll just forget the whole thing and go back to the previous driver.

Now, the reason I started this in the first place is that I like Media Player 11 better than Creative Media Organiser which, so far, is the only program that will talk to my Zen. I'm not a fan of having a slightly different program installed for just one little purpose, so I wanted to see if WMP would play nice with the Zen. Apparently it only thinks that's possible with a driver that doesn't work.

Mokalus of Borg

PS - I just wanted to listen to my podcasts.
PPS - It's all way too complicated.

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